A few of you were wondering about the government shutting down commercial aviation, well I got a 30 second "Readers Digest ' version from a person with a little knowledge on the subject.
After the 9/11 'event', and the SARS outbreak in Asia 4-5 years ago, apparently the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation / Federal Aviation Administration, devised a plan to orderly shutdown the commercial aviation system in the US.
This is how it's supposed to work at Southwest, when the order is given by the government, all airborne aircraft will be allowed to continue on to their destination.
Upon arrival all passengers will deplane the aircraft, regardless if it is their final destination ( what happens to the passengers after that I don't know).
All 'overnighting' flight crew members will be called, and told to report to the airport immediately, the aircraft will fly to the closest city which has a flight crew / aircraft maintenance station ( Southwest has 8 throughout the country).
Flight crews will then board aircraft back to their 'home domicile' base .
Depending on availability of flight crews, 120 aircraft will be flown to each of our 4 largest heavy maintenance bases in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix, and the remainder of the aircraft left at other cities with flight crew bases and 'line maintenance' stations, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Oakland and Orlando.
